Ukrainian troops sit atop an armoured personnel carrier (APC) fitted with a Ukrainian flag as a convoy rides past near the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region (AFP Photo / Genya Savilov)

The UN is deliberately distorting facts in its latest report on the situation in Ukraine, justifying the violence conducted by the Ukrainian authorities, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

The Ministry thinks that “the efforts of the Office of UN
High Commission for Human Rights and the UN monitoring mission
should be channeled not to directly or indirectly justify the
violence carried out by the Ukrainian authorities, but to help
ensure the ceasefire and to begin the dialogue between Kiev and
the eastern representatives to restore peace in the region.”

Official representative of the Foreign Ministry Aleksandr
Lukashevich said they has “carefully studied the latest,
already the fourth, report published by the Office of UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, based on the information prepared
by the UN monitoring mission.”

“The main conclusion: the report is not objective and is even
hypocritical. It will just suffice to mention the message about
the Ukrainian government having the right to legitimately use
force to restore law and order in the east of the country. Thus,
the operation conducted by the Ukrainian ‘punishers’ is
essentially justified,” Lukashevich said.

Lukashevich said the Foreign Ministry carefully studied the
report, which was based on the data prepared
by the UN monitoring mission.

The Foreign Ministry said the report claims that Kiev began the
campaign in response to the eastern militias’ actions – when in
reality, the local population started to fight to protect
themselves from ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazi groups, including
those on the ground. This was mentioned as an example of
“distorting the facts.”

The report didn’t even mention that the Ukrainian army and the
radicals from the National Guard used Grad missiles, leading to
the deaths of 16 people and scores of civilians being wounded –
information confirmed by Human Rights Watch.

Also, the cases of detention and beating of Russian journalists
from the Zvezda and Life News TV channels were ignored in the
report. The Russian Foreign Ministry believes that the statement
that two Russian journalists of the All-Russian State TV and
Radio Broadcasting Company could be killed by the Ukrainian army
or by the militia is cynical.

However, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said that the UN report does
pay attention to a few important points in the conflict.

First, the report states that the disregard for legitimate
demands for more autonomy and the use of the native Russian
language in eastern Ukraine that lie at the heart of the
conflict.

Second, the mounting number of victims is due to the random
shelling of residential areas by the Ukrainian forces and the
National Guard, according to the report.

The report also pays attention to the fact that there has been no
progress in investigating the tragic events on Kiev’s Maidan, in
Odessa and in Mariupol. And it’s hardly likely that any of these
probes will be completed.

Finally, the report speaks about a “witch-hunt” carried
out in Ukraine: the Kiev authorities are detaining anyone they
suspect of supporting the eastern militia, are banning Russian TV
channels, and deleting comments from social networks.